Age 23, in the Navy, in Japan, following Jesus wherever he leads. This is an undetailed chronicle of the journey.
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If you’re subscribing to Americable out here in Japan (or wherever), you’ll definitely want to hit up Fewl’s latest post, where Jim investigates exactly who owns the company and what they’ve been up to. For one, they’re not owned by the government. Second, they’re ripping you off.
Today’s Sunday edition of Stars and Stripes reports that Rep. Lincoln Davis (D-TN), introduced H.R. 4497 earlier this month looking to end gambling on U.S. military bases overseas. The bill’s short title is Warrant Officer Aaron Walsh Stop DOD-Sponsored Gambling Act, so named for an Army Warrant Officer who committed suicide over a gambling addiction that the military apparently never treated.
This looks mostly like a fundamental misunderstanding of why the armed forces provide slot machines and alcohol on base: it keeps the problems on base as opposed to out among foreign nationals. Nobody’s trying to ban alcohol or tobacco from military exchanges or bars, and those combined kill far more of our people and administrative resources than gambling. If he didn’t get the treatment, figure out why and address the issue there.
There’s a good amount of talk going around concerning 7th Fleet liberty restrictions, but let me clarify something here.
I’ve been a DIVO for almost six months now (arr, salty Ensign!!), and I’ve never signed a liberty plan. Period. So no, they’re not around here, so stop assuming that they are just because we’re in Seventh Fleet.
The blame the DIVO portion on the second page of the thread, however, is priceless.
ht: Fewl
Speaking of Hitler, The news world is all over Will Smith right now for comments he made concerning the good intentions of Hitler. Roger Kimball looks to have the best wrap-up that I’ve looked at. In essence, the possibly disturbing part of his comment is not the historical truth that Hitler thought he was doing good things, but that it needs “reprogramming.”
To put this into a Navy perspective, our current policy for extremist behavior/attitudes is simply to kick the individual out. Other than occasional GMT training, not much is said about extremism. Addressing of general attitudes, however, does have to be addressed on a regular basis.
Thus comes into play a challenge to freedom of thought in the military. Unlike within the general public or at a university (one hopes), we do reeducate. We expect sailors to harbor certain attitudes, but where is that limit? Do we stop at honor, courage, and commitment, or do we go farther in? And how far do the core values go in in the first place?
Perhaps more importantly, are the core values valued at all levels rather than being something dictated from on high?
To be investigated further…
Something’s had me a bit riled up in my mind lately, namely the philosophy put out by equal opportunity folks that all ideas, cultures, etc. are equal in merit.
Long ago, a guy named Hitler thought it was okay to kill innocent people in the name of making the state a stronger entity. Earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court thought that free blacks should not have the same rights as whites.
The potential problems that this poses involves more than the superiority of the idea that ends up on top. Not only does it negate any notion of societal progress (which EO folks would be the first to say has been made), it negates itself. If person A says that all ideas are equal, and person B says that not all ideas are equal, person A’s philosophy then says that person B’s philosophy is of equal merit.
Yes, this has been thought up already, but some people don’t seem to understand it. Let’s take this to a Navy level: Ensign Retard has an idea. His LDO department head says it’s a stupid idea. Ensign Retard counters that both ideas have equal merit.
I don’t intend to put this to the test.
Other than the whole Hong Kong rejection deal, the Navy Times has had Kitty Hawk in the news twice on morale issues. First was some sort of movie ban. The second is an article on individual liberty plans (ILPs), which according to local rumor here in Sasebo have been the trend in Yokosuka for quite a while now. IT2 “Jim” has more detail in multiple posts.
The big news Friday night for personnel on duty was the very real possibility that they’d be stuck on base for the weekend while Sasebo police try to find a Japanese man who came into a sports club (gym) with a shotgun and started shooting at people. Two dead, six injured. He killed himself outside a Catholic church. One article which I can’t find right now speculated that organized crime was creeping into Sasebo from Fukuoka, but this looks like an isolated case of psychological illness.
I couldn’t find much detail on the sentence, but perhaps I could get the record of trial on this one and find out. Nonetheless, the LA Times seemed to have the most detail available, including a remark where his defense counsel says he’ll probably serve 18 months. One assumes that the journalists completely skipped over the term “dismissal.” Newsweek, meanwhile, commits the cardinal sin of calling a midshipman, “cadet.”
Penthouse has been back in military exchanges for a while now, and the reaction by anti-pornography groups (example) should be no surprise, but unlike tobacco and alcohol, the military conduct no campaigning against the use of pornography. Sex-related public service campaigns seem only to include sexual harrassment/assault, abstinence promotion aimed at minors, and the prohibition against viewing pornography on government computers, the latter topic of which is never found on AFN commercials.
The Navy Times article linked says that the law does ban “sexually explicit” publications, despite that Penthouse fell out from that definition, and Playboy has fallen outside ever since the the specific law’s existed, meaning that according to the board evaluating the magazines, they do not contain “as a dominant theme the depiction or description of nudity, including sexual or excretory activities or organs, in a lascivious way.” When comparing this to barring pornography on government computers, what exactly is the definition of what kinds of sexual materials are banned? I don’t know which law bans pornography viewing on government computers, but if command policies ban “pornography,” and “pornography” is inherently “sexually explicit,” and Penthouse and Playboy aren’t “sexually explicit,” then what exactly is banned? This doesn’t mean officers should immediately stop enforcing the full intent of command policy, but somebody could try to bring this up. The specter is far more real for shore commands, which can’t force an individual into NJP.
To address those advocating a complete ban of pornography–using, of course, a much looser definition–they will end up having to address why the military doesn’t do the same for alcohol and tobacco, especially considering the content of public service campaigns as mentioned above. Those not familiar with AFN commercials, be informed that they do cover a wide range of topics other than alcohol and tobacco, covering seemingly everything from eating breakfast, to powers of attorney, to those of the Loose Lips Sink Ships variety.
A more consistent solution on both ends might be to wage a similar campaign against pornography. Sure it might be cheesy, but we ought to be consistent in our cheesiness, right? Why not broadcast testimonials against pornography? At minimum, let former porn stars tell the story of what it’s really like in there. Let men whose lives have been ruined tell their story. And to make sure we have just enough cheesiness, stick Pete the Porno Puppet in there, too.
Note: This post is edited from its original form due to the YouTube embedding messing up the layout of the page.
Would these men cut it if selection was based on looks?
The Navy Times‘ front page declares this week that “3 out of 4 officers have failed to follow a new Navy regulation” and asks “Are they insubordinate, just plain lazy or hiding something?”
The article regards the new required service record photographs. This means that promotion boards now get to see what individuals look like before ranking them for screening, whether that be for command, special programs, or just plain promotion.
I’m no expert on such boards, but count me skeptical. I’m already convinced that the body fat standard is based upon the wanting to have good-looking thin people, a policy which I’ve already seen kick good big people who kick rear-end on the PRT far better than their peers.
Secondly (as pointed out here), who’s to say that the photos can’t be edited? I highly doubt that there are experts checking the photos for editing, especially considering that they’re submitted via snail mail and not digitally. Really, it’s not that hard, and people are bound to violate integrity standards for a promotion. Sorry, that’s just the way it is.
Finally and most importantly, good people who don’t necessarily look good will suffer. That doesn’t just go for obesity or race.
Regardless, I followed my orders and had the picture done anyway, but this is a reversal of a reversal, meaning it could be re-reversed again.
Other blogs taking note:
The Yankee Sailor
GunThing Forum